Immortal of the Nine Realms

After leaving the restaurant, the tipsiness on Old Fei’s face vanished instantly.

”You need to watch out for that Xiao Suan in the future. He is a second-transformation immortal, but I ended up taking the Deputy Branch Officer position that should have been his. He is definitely very disgruntled.”

Fang Chen asked casually, ”What about the Branch Officer?”

Old Fei smiled. ”Li Tingjiu? He’s fine. He knows I have a background, and since he’s already the primary Branch Officer, any further promotion would mean leaving the Lishui City Inspection Division anyway. So as long as I don’t cross the line too much, he won’t make trouble.”

”So our main objective here at the Lishui City Inspection Division is to track down the fugitives on the wanted list?”

”Naturally. You should be quite interested in this, right? I remember the heir mentioning to me before that when he first saw you and Shi Zhan, you two were staring at the wanted list.”

Lao Fei laughed. ”If not for that, and the fact that you awakened a lightning divine ability, I wouldn’t have brought you along. Your talent is decent. Dying in a war zone would be a waste. It’s much better to lay low here in the rear, earning rewards while boosting your cultivation. If you can rack up achievements in the Inspection Division and advance to the ninth transformation in the future, your prospects will be far better than in the Luoxue Alliance. After all, you have no backer in the alliance, but here, the heir is my backer, and I am yours.”

Fang Chen cupped his hands. ”I understand.”

After settling down in his quarters at the Inspection Division, Fang Chen allowed his divine soul to exit his body and took a stroll around the premises.

Inside a room, Xiao Suan had laid down restrictive barriers. He was looking at more than a dozen of his trusted aides, each of whom was in the Dao Fusion Realm.

”After today, I will likely have to hand over more than half of my authority to Chen Feifei. He can be considered your direct superior now, so you must be careful when working under him.”

”The Deputy Branch Officer seat should have been yours. Why did the higher-ups dispatch a fellow whose cultivation is inferior to yours...?” someone grumbled in dissatisfaction. ℯℯ𝘭.

”You heard it yourselves. This man hails from the war zones and has racked up illustrious military merits. Naturally, he caught the eye of one of the higher-ups, allowing him to leap out of the frontlines and take up a post here in the rear,” said Xiao Suan indifferently.

”When you handle matters in the future, be more covert. Don’t target him directly, but we still need to give him a reality check. Pick a few troublesome fugitives and let that kid surnamed Zhou under him handle them. Once they suffer a setback, they’ll realize that this line of work isn’t that simple. How could the dangers we face here be any less dangerous than those of the warzones?”

Fang Chen couldn’t help but nod. This kind of petty politics was altogether too common. He had seen it plenty of times.

He figured that the Lishui City Inspection Division was keeping a few less-important fugitives on a leash, only striking them down when they needed to cash in some merits. It was nothing more than raising bandits to self-sustain.

”The fugitives I can encounter in this place won’t be of a very high tier. I need to secure more achievements as quickly as possible. Once Chen Feifei rises through the ranks, I will naturally rise along with him without having to draw too much attention to myself. If I can get put in charge of the cases involving Ancestor Lie and the others, that would be a true success.”

With that thought, Fang Chen didn’t care to listen to the rest of their scheme. His divine soul wandered elsewhere, thoroughly familiarizing himself with the ins and outs of Lishui City.

***

A few days later.

While Fang Chen was reviewing official documents, a subordinate hurried inside and said in a lowered voice, ”Boss, it seems we have spotted a major fugitive from the wanted list.”

Fang Chen nodded calmly. ”Oh? Then call a meeting.”

Before long, more than a dozen Dao Fusion Realms sat together in the hall. Because of his connection to Chen Feifei, Fang Chen naturally became the leader of this group, occupying the head seat.

”Profound Blade Pei Buliao, seven hundred years old, a Dao Fusion divine ability user of unknown origin. Eighty years ago, he deserted a certain war zone and killed dozens of his comrades. Twenty years ago, he committed another major crime, killing three divine ability users from the Inspection Division. He has now fled to Lishui City under the alias Pei Qian and opened a teahouse.”

Fang Chen glanced over Pei Buliao’s information, then smiled faintly. ”Now that we have news of this person, which of you will go and take him down?”

The crowd looked at one another, but no one responded. One of them let out a bitter smile and said, ”Brother Zhou, we all have matters at hand right now and really don’t have the energy to deal with this Pei Buliao. Why don’t we trouble you to lead some men there instead?”

”I think we should just report it to the higher-ups and let a ninth-transformation expert handle it. After all, Pei Buliao is a peak Dao Fusion expert. It wouldn’t be safe for us to go.”

Someone sneered. ”Report it to the higher-ups? Wouldn’t that just invite them to scold us for being incompetent? It doesn’t matter to us; we’ve been mucking around here for years and have no hope of promotion anyway. But Brother Zhou is different. He has a bright future ahead of him and needs to make some achievements here. He can’t just idle around waiting to die like us.”

Seeing this, Fang Chen nodded calmly. ”Since everyone is busy, I will go then.”

Upon hearing that, the crowd immediately expressed that they had no objections whatsoever.

Shortly after, Fang Chen led a dozen or so Spirit Division Realm divine ability users out of the Inspection Office, marching openly and arrogantly toward Pei Buliao’s hiding place.

In the pavilion behind them, a group of people watched this scene quietly. One of them suddenly chuckled. ”He thinks he’s still in the war zone. How can anyone arrest someone so openly? He really isn’t cut out for this line of work.”

”Lord Xiao, I heard that Pei Buliao has already advanced to ninth transformation. If we don’t stop Zhou Chen, he might end up getting killed, and that’s not a good look for us all,” someone said hesitantly.

Xiao Suan smiled. ”Naturally, no one will die. Once he can’t handle it anymore, I will make my move.”

Everyone immediately understood, smiling as they waited for the show to begin.

***

Before long, Fang Chen arrived at the teahouse with his subordinates.

Inside the teahouse, a figure spotted the arrival of the Inspection Division divinity users outside. A sharp gleam flashed across his eyes, which then returned to a dull, lifeless state.

Fang Chen led his men into the teahouse and called out in a clear voice, ”Is Shopkeeper Pei here?”

The diners had no idea what was happening and curiously sized up the group.

At the same time, Xiao Suan and his group followed close behind. They sat down at a food stall across the street, munching on melon seeds while observing the situation with faint smiles on their faces.

Shopkeeper Pei was quickly notified and ran over in a hurry, cupping his hands with utmost deference. ”My Lord, this old servant is here. May I ask what business brings you to my humble establishment?”

Fang Chen said with a faint smile, ”Someone says you are Profound Blade Pei Buliao. Come with me.”

”Profound Blade Pei Buliao? Isn’t that a wanted fugitive?”

The diners were surprised and sized up Pei Buliao with curiosity. They weren’t overly frightened because even if this man truly was Pei Buliao, his strength wasn’t overwhelmingly high, so the Inspection Division should be able to suppress him easily.

”Heheh, I have been hiding here for so many years, yet I was still sniffed out by you dogs.” Pei Buliao suddenly let out a low chuckle. ”But did you ever consider that I have long since advanced to the Nine—”

Before he could finish his sentence, a resounding slap landed across his face, knocking him out cold on the floor on the spot.

”Take him away.”

Fang Chen gave his subordinates a brief nod, turned around, left the teahouse, and walked back toward the Division Office.

Xiao Suan and the others were utterly stunned. They watched as Pei Buliao was carried out of the teahouse by a group of men, completely motionless as if he had fainted.

Someone stared blankly at Xiao Suan. ”Lord Xiao, what is this?”

Could their information have been wrong? Had Pei Buliao not advanced to the ninth transformation at all, or was this person simply not Pei Buliao?